Tag: Art and Design

  • Tonight on Frontline: Ai Weiwei

    Just a note to remember that tonight marks the debut of the abbreviated version of Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, a biopic/documentary about one of China’s most internationally prominent artists. Rumor has it that video will be available online soon after. The film has been the recent work of Alison Klayman and others. I posted links…

  • The fate of the UCCA art space in 798

    Early today I put a new header image at the top of this site. It’s cropped from a picture of an artist working on a grand installation in the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, a gallery/museum in Beijing’s 798 art district. A few hours later, I heard the ambitious project was coming to a sort…

  • A Literary Note: Benjamin Hale, Alexandra Kleeman, and LEAP

    It’s been a good few months for my more literary friends. Most recently, an old friend Ben Hale (website, blog) has published his first novel and received very good reviews, including in the New York Times Book Review. I was lucky enough to read The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore in proofs, and that copy is still…

  • Documentary on Ai Weiwei’s New York (20-minute video)

    I never got around to noting the exciting future release of Alison Klayman’s documentary on the life of artist Ai Weiwei, though far more prominent writers did. But today I found just a taste of her work from an exhibition last year of Ai’s photographs while living in New York between 1983 and 1993. The…

  • When the U.S. Wants to Criticize 'Chinese Art'

    In The New Republic, Jed Perl exercises no economy of words in lambasting art from China and its growing global following. Based on a reading of “Chinese art” that does not apparently leave the island of Manhattan, Perl makes several questionable statements, often abetted by lack of knowledge, and Alan Baumler at Frog in a…